La Pine student out of spelling bee
Local contestant makes second round before 'ophryon' trips him up
June 01, 2006, Page B1
By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
La Pine's Ty Meek, 12, works his way through "ophryon" at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Peter Sachs/The Bulletin. |
WASHINGTON - Ty Meek may have had his head in the right place Wednesday, but the ophryon still got the better of him.
Ty was asked to spell the medical term, which means the point on one's forehead between the eyebrows, in the second round of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Standing before a crowd of several hundred people and dozens of cameras, dressed in a bright blue Hawaiian shirt, Ty knew he had a tricky word as soon as pronouncer Jacques Bailly said it.
"O-F-F," Ty started, before pausing, looking somewhere into the middle distance, and finishing "R-E-A-N."
A short time later, Ty learned his score was not high enough to advance to the third round, but standing outside the hotel ballroom where the competition was held, he said he was not too disappointed.
Ty, 12, a seventh-grader at La Pine Middle School, was one of 275 spellers from across the United States who qualified by winning regional and state spelling bees earlier in the year.
Ty said he picked up his knack for spelling on the drives between Eugene and La Pine, during which his father, Phil, made him and his sister spell as they traveled between their parents' houses. The time on the road gave plenty of opportunities for the siblings to crack tough words and math problems, urged on by Phil the whole way. But outside of those rides, Ty said he did not do much else to study beforehand.
Ty trounced his competition during The Bulletin's regional spelling bee in March, but the words and the setting were perhaps more intense in Washington, D.C.
Every speller had to take a 25-word written test first, selecting the correct spellings of words read to them. They had to differentiate between "olio," Italian for oil, and "oleo," a type of margarine, and pick the right way to spell mouthfuls like "sprachgefuhl" (knowing the right word to use), "scopolamine" (a chemical sometimes used as a truth serum) and "oeillade" (a glance). In the second round, the spellers got a chance to spell a word. Their scores from the written first round and the oral second round were added to determine who would move on.
Sitting on stage among the other contestants, Ty looked relaxed and ready to take a nap before he got up to spell his word. He said later "I just kind of need to concentrate," but stage fright has never been a problem for him.
Only 97 spellers made it past the second round to continue spelling in single-elimination rounds Wednesday and today.
This trip was about more than just spelling for Ty, his father, Phil, and sister Alyssa. It was the first time they had been to Washington, D.C., and they spent several days this week touring monuments, museums and the Capitol. The favorite for all of them was seeing an original copy of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives.
Even though he did not make it past the opening rounds, Ty did not walk away empty-handed. Besides the trip to Washington, most of which was paid for by The Bulletin, Ty also got $50 and a watch from Scripps, a $100 savings bond and other prizes from the reference company Franklin.
"It was fun," Ty said. "I enjoyed it."